Hello Wendy, I am afraid I cannot tell you what "legal rights" you have under New Jersey laws. I can answer any questions you have about the reverse mortgage and your rights as the heir regarding the loan, but I cannot give you legal advice. I am surprised though that you have waited for 2 years and until the lender contacted you to inquire about the property if you are the rightful and only heir? The lender often has no idea who the heir with claim to the title will be. Lenders cannot make the determination as to whom they will work when the owner of a property passes and usually must wait until the new owner contacts them with the legal paperwork to solidify their claim to title. This may be from a probate action, a trust certification or other means, but the lender is not the one to determine the heirship to the home. That is up to the heirs to establish and to communicate to the lienholder (the lender). In all honesty, if you have never taken any steps to notify the lender of your ownership of the home or taken the steps to transfer the title, I am surprised you were contacted at all and the property didn't just go through foreclosure without you ever being notified. That may be an additional requirement in New Jersey, I cannot say. My suggestion to you at this time would be to contact an attorney who specializes in foreclosures in New Jersey to determine what rights you have at this time. You will probably need to have the foreclosure delayed in order to have enough time to complete a change of title and he/she will know if this is possible and if so, what steps would have to be taken to complete the stay of foreclosure. You also need to know that the loan is due and payable currently. Even if you can get the foreclosure delayed, you need to be able to pay the loan off right away or it will continue again very soon. You can do this with money available to you or with another loan. If you do not have the funds available to pay off the loan and do not believe you can qualify for another loan to refinance the existing loan, getting a delay in the foreclosure would not be of any benefit unless you believe the home is worth more than the amount owed and you can sell it quickly enough to make the delay profitable on a sale. I suggest that you not delay. It sounds like your children have already been through the home and taken anything of value (and what they didn't take, thieves may have) but if the home does go through a foreclosure action, the home will be emptied and the contents disposed of pursuant to New Jersey laws so you would have no chance to retain anything of your mom's. These are all things you can discuss with your attorney since he/she will need to know what your intentions are so that he/she can adequately advise you on all matters.

Hello Benancio, From your description, I am assuming that your brother's home was purchased by someone who bid against the lender at the foreclosure auction and became the highest bidder at the auction. Is that correct? I make this assumption because the lender or lienholder only bids what is owed to them and that is the opening bid. If no one bids higher, the lender or lienholder in a Trustee's Sale then wins the auction and becomes the owner of the property. However, if someone or others bid higher than the lienholder, the lender or lienholder will not increase their bid and the new owner will be the party who is the highest bidder and the lienholder will be paid in full of the proceeds of the sale. Any amount paid above and beyond what is owed to the lienholder belongs to the owner of the property. Since your brother has passed, if he had no other heirs, you may be entitled to the remaining funds. I am sorry, I do not know the exact process for others to reclaim any remaining funds. My only advice would be to contact an attorney who handles such matters but the ones contacting you may also be attorneys specializing in just this sort of matter. Also, are they offering their services to you at a percentage of the amount recovered or at a flat fee? The reason I ask is because unless there are multiple bidders to drive the price up, the sale would stop with the first bidder who bid higher than the lender who had foreclosed and there may not be much money available. If you do not want to check with an attorney, perhaps a title company can help you? They may be able to check public records anyway and see what the amount of the foreclosure was that was filed and then also the tax stamps to see what the file sale price was to see what kind of money you are talking about anyway and they may be able to tell you how to contact the state to claim the funds.

Hello Randolph, Your mom decides who does what with the property in her will or trust and you all proceed accordingly. The lender has a loan on the property, they don't own it. Therefore, hopefully mom has directions by way of a will or trust that will determine which heir will act as her executor and what the disposition of the property will be. The loan will be due and payable at that time so whatever the heirs decide to do with the property (keep it or sell it), they will have to keep in mind that the loan will be due and plan accordingly. This means that if you are the one tasked with the final disposition of the property, you could choose to sell the home or keep it. If you sell the home, all equity in the property belongs to the estate and you should probably speak to an estate attorney to determine the best way to divide the proceeds.I may be incorrectly presuming that there are other heirs, I just saw that you used the term "an heir" and not "the heir" so if I am wrong, even if you are the sole heir, I don't think it's a bad idea to discuss options with a professional. Either way though, you will need to pass the title from mom to you so that you can sell it and that could also include a probate. If mom is fully competent now and the property is not in a trust, you may want to visit with an estate attorney now to determine if this is a good way for you to proceed, before mom can no longer sign legal documents. I cannot give you legal advice, but I can advise you to seek out the assistance of a good estate attorney who can before the time comes because I know from first-hand experience and from speaking to many families that it is much easier to do things while mom is still alive and able to communicate her wishes than waiting until later when people are grieving and then it takes legal proceedings to accomplish title changes, etc. and you are then working against a ticking clock as that loan is due. Knowing the plans also takes out any possible family disagreements, especially caused when parents pass without leaving written instructions and no clear path to achieve the plan.

Hello Shannon, It's very difficult for me to advise you based on the limited information you have supplied. The reverse mortgage company can only deal with verified heirs though so I can only ask what steps you took to sell the home? Was there a will? Was the property in a trust? Did it have to go through probate? Like the lenders for all loans, the reverse mortgage company cannot supply information to any third party without the proper authorization and if your mom did not provide that authorization to the company while she was still living, then you must be sure to follow the proper legal steps to sell the home. The reverse mortgage lender will not make the determination as to who can and cannot act on behalf of the estate, there are legal steps for this, and you must follow those steps. I do not know what you have done or what your state requires, but I would suggest you contact an attorney if you have not already done so and you have not taken the legal steps to clear the title. The problem you may have is that the title company and the lender cannot act to allow the closing without the legal cover to know you have the right to sell the property in the first place. That may take a court action to complete. Without knowing if there are other heirs that could have a claim, if there are other creditors, etc., the lender and the settlement provider will not proceed with a closing. An estate attorney in your area will know exactly what you need to do to proceed with the transaction.

Hello Jami,The seller is playing a dangerous game. He's hiding the fact that the owner has passed and may be falsifying occupancy certifications to the lender (they go out annually and it's hard to say for sure, but chances are that one has gone out since the owner passed unless the timing was such that it went out just before the owner passed and it hasn't been a year yet). If he has not been truthful and the lender discovers this, they will be much less likely to delay before initiating foreclosure proceedings. Furthermore, if he collected additional draws on the loan after the borrower passed by supplying the lender false information, the lender could choose to act on that. If the heir simply has not said anything and has not sent any untrue information to the lender, chances are if the lender discovers the passing of the borrower they will just call the loan and the heir might just have a little more incentive to close the sale with no real consequences. But he is accruing interest on the loan this entire time even if he hasn't done anything to take additional funds. Have you seen a monthly statement? You may want to be sure there is enough equity in the home.

Hello Anne, I am not sure which articles you are referencing, but I don't think we have ever stated or implied that the process would happen extremely quickly. There are several things that the lender must do before they can accept your property by way of a Deed in Lieu of foreclosure. I don't know when you first contacted them, but if mom passed away 2 months ago, they typically don't talk to the family for 30 days or more after that so I can't see this having been a terribly long time at this point. The lender must contact an appraiser and have an appraisal conducted on the property. I know you have indicated that you are willing to sign the Deed in Lieu, but they must know the value as well as make sure the that home is at a minimum "broom clean" with no more personal belongings in the home. They must also have a title company perform the title work to be sure there are no other liens on the property. If the lender accepts a home that is full of a borrower's personal property or has other liens on the home, they incur liability with those issues. If they must go through a full foreclosure, they are protected by law under the foreclosure laws and can complete the foreclosure, have any personal effects removed and it would be up to any other lienholders to either protect their interest or subordinate liens would be removed with the foreclosure. The lender/servicer does not even know if they have any of these issues usually in the first 30 – 60 days and it takes a while to get the title, appraisal and all other items required together. When you compare a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure time frame to a foreclosure though, the lender must do the same appraisals, title searches, etc. but does not have the additional 150 – 180 days that a foreclosure would take so the timeframe is usually much quicker. I can't tell you exactly how long it will take because the timing is different in different areas and depending on different circumstances. If the property is completely empty and if it is broom clean with no other liens, the lender can still only move as quickly as the service providers for appraisal, title and other services need for their end of the transaction. If everything comes together without delay, it should not be a protracted process. If things pop up on title or if there are no appraisers available, etc, the timeframes will be delayed and that delay will depend on when everything can be obtained, if at all. In some cases, a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure can never be accepted because of secondary liens that have been placed on the home subsequent to the reverse mortgage. About the servicer not getting back to you, that I cannot understand. Novad is HUD's servicer. Once you supplied the necessary documents to them to show that you have full authority to speak on behalf of the borrower, they certainly should be working with you as if you were the borrower yourself. Have they asked for any additional information or indicated in any way that the documents you sent to them are insufficient? I don't know if Novad would be any quicker if you retain an attorney, but an attorney may be better at determining their needs and supplying them with missing information, but that is entirely up to you. If Novad has everything, there should not be any delays above and beyond the time needed to get everything they need to accept the Deed in Lieu. I wish I could be of more assistance with why they are not communicating but I really have no idea at this point what is preventing that communication.

Hello Jeannettea, The loan never just passes on to someone else after the borrower permanently leaves the property, whether because of death or because they move to an assisted living facility. When you were added as a person eligible to speak on behalf of your mom about the loan, that just means that you have authorization the lender needs to discuss the loan with someone other than the borrower. Because of financial privacy laws, reverse mortgage lenders cannot divulge personal information or discuss a loan with a third party, even a son or daughter, without consent of the borrower or a court order. You have that consent but that does not help you about the loan now. The loan is now due and payable with mom no longer living in the property. Under the terms of the reverse mortgage, as the heir. You can sell the home, refinance the loan with a new loan in your name or pay off the loan with other funds available to you. If the amount owed on the reverse mortgage is more than the current value of the home, you can pay off the balance for 95% of the current value instead of the full amount owed. If you do not wish to refinance or sell the home, you also have the right to walk away from the property and owe nothing, regardless of how much is owed and what the value is. My suggestion is to first decide what you want to do and what you can do. If you want to keep the home but don't feel as though you could get a new loan to refinance the balance of the reverse mortgage, you need to find out how much equity is in the home (if any) and take steps to protect that equity. Contact a real estate professional in your area and determine the most probable selling price of the property. Compare that to your mom's most recent statement to determine whether there is equity in the home. You need to make sure the property title is in your name if you intend to sell it. If you are not on title, you cannot sell the home or get a new loan on it so as soon as you determine that there is enough equity to get a new loan or to sell, you need to work quickly to obtain title to the property. If you are getting a new loan, then you would show the lender that you have taken those steps and they should be willing to work with you to complete your financing. If you are selling the home, again, once they see that you have taken the steps to clear the title and have listed the home for sale, they will work with you to allow you to complete the sale and can give you extensions as necessary. The one thing you don't want to do is just wait until they decide you are not making any efforts to repay the obligation and place the property into foreclosure. The more proactive you are, the better your chances of retaining some equity in the home.